Fox News asks US judge to dismiss $2.7B election lawsuit

Voting tech firm Smartmatic Corp has accused Fox News of executing a coordinated disinformation campaign, saying that the network perpetrated the narrative that the firm conspired against Donald Trump in last year’s United States presidential election.

A Fox News lawyer was grilled by a judge about the network’s extensive coverage of false claims that the voting technology firm Smartmatic Corp. conspired against Donald Trump in November’s presidential election, as Fox seeks dismissal of a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit. At a hearing Tuesday in Manhattan, Justice David Cohen asked Fox to explain why former anchor Lou Dobbs repeatedly claimed on air in November and December that there was new, “groundbreaking” evidence of voter fraud even after U.S. officials had debunked such claims. “That is clearly his opinion,” Fox News attorney Paul Clement said. “It was a widely shared opinion at the time.”